Duke Hammers Charlotte 101-59

The best part of the Charlotte game was the return of the Durham Dynamo, that’s what Nolan Smith was. Notching a career high and scoring in every way imaginable, Nolan took the team and the excitement to new level tonight. I worried about Nolan pressing a bit, but that didn’t happen – he was controlled chaos. He also had 5 assists, 5 rebounds and 2 steals in the game. Duke is a top 10 team without Smith in the lineup, but with Smith they are top 5.

Scheyer just does everything well, 3 games, no turnovers…phenomenal. Great floor game, under control and puts the ball in the right hands in the right positions.

Kyle Singler let the game come to him, and still managed to score 17, he is going to be quite the problem for teams to matchup against. He can play inside or outside, and his move to the perimeter has definitely paid off. This should keep him fresh for post season play, and keep opposing players on their heels. His footwork was highlighted during the game broadcast and it was definitely evident that his film study and attention to detail has paid off.

Miles Plumlee has made strides since last year indeed, he understands where to be on defense and makes himself available in the middle as an easy target for passes. He also finishes strong like you expect a big to do. Much more athletic than credit given, it’s going to be fun to see he and Mason play together.

The other great performance in this game was the bench, If Duke can get consistent scoring from the bench they will he difficult to beat. 24 points is a great number and it’s good to see different guys step up and hit shots. We will have more in the morning…. great win for Duke.

On the defensive end, it is nice to see Duke employing a zone defense per K’s olympic experience, we saw the 3-2 zone last year but it seems like with this line-up it will be much more effective. It will be interesting th see how this works with PGs that are more 3pt shot oriented.

Even if guards are getting by ours, the bigs collapsing should be a strength for Duke, too many times I think our bigs were caught out of position, this will improve with more game time.

The bigs definitely need to hold their ground, there is no need for our 6-10 guys need to jumping to play defense, hopefully they understand their height, in time. Zoubek is stil playing smaller than he should, and picks up needless fouls on the defensive end.

Duke did force 17 turnover in this game and had Charlotte playing on their heels the entire game. Duke looked to push the tempo quite a bit more in this game having the full complement of perimeter players, the difference was clear although the halfcourt game will serve them well this year in grind it out games.